Steve Martin's 13 best films

3 June 2015 • 10:18am

The career highs of the jerk who became the king of Hollywood comedy

1. The Jerk, 1979

Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters in the 1979 movie The JerkCredit:
Rex Features

Steve Martin's film career began in 1972 with a small role as a
hippy in a political comedy called Another Nice Mess. But the stand-up
comedian's first real triumph was the 1979 Carl Reiner-directed movie
The Jerk. Martin starred as Navin R Johnson, the simpleton adopted
white son of African-American sharecroppers. The Jerk is a warm and
engagingly silly film, featuring jokes about cat jugglers, but at the
time of its release it had a mixed reception. "It took a long
time to get over the bad reviews," Martin later said. He added
that British comedian Peter Sellers had offered him great
encouragement at what was a difficult time in his career.

Steve Martin in the 1981 musical comedy film Pennies From HeavenCredit:
Rex Features

Steve Martin plays Arthur Parker in Pennies From Heaven, a role that
had been performed by Bob Hoskins in the original BBC TV adaptation of
Dennis Potter's Great Depression musical. In 1981 Potter was nominated
for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Martin, who plays a
sheet music salesman, said: "The people who get the movie, in
general, have been wise and intelligent; the people who don't get it
are ignorant scum." Although the film lacks some of the
charm of the BBC version it is, at times, dazzling. "I loved
doing Pennies from Heaven," said Martin. "You have
to understand that I'd been doing comedy for 15 to 20 years, and
suddenly along came the opportunity to do this beautiful film. It was
so emotional to me. I loved it. I don't think it was a good career
move, but I have no regrets about doing it." Martin was nominated
for a Best Actor Golden Globe for his performance.

Steve Martin plays private investigator Rigby Reardon in this 1982
comedy directed by Carl Reiner. It's a parody and celebration of
the Forties film noir thrillers and has a running gag (a vaudeville
routine tribute) in which Martin goes berserk every time he hears the
phrase: "The cleaning lady". Using splicing and trick
photography the black-and-white film also has appearances from
celebrated actors and actresses including Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey
Bogart, James Cagney, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and Lana Turner.
Legendary costume designer Edith Head, who had created outfits for
films such as Double Indemnity (1944), Notorious (1946) and Sunset
Boulevard (1950), created more than 20 suits for Martin.

Best line: "Carlotta was the kind of town where they spell
trouble T-R-U-B-I-L, and if you try to correct them, they kill you."

4. The Man With Two Brains, 1983

Steve Martin in The Man With Two Brains (1983)Credit:
Rex Features

Steve Martin has one of the great Hollywood fictional names in this
1983 Carl Reiner comedy: Doctor Michael Hfuhruhurr. Hfuhruhurr is
a widowed brain surgeon who has invented a method of
"cranial screw-top" brain surgery. Kathleen Turner plays
Hfuhruhurr's nasty and unfaithful second wife, Dolores Benedict. Sissy
Spacek voices the disembodied brain that Hfuhruhurr falls in love
with. It's a brilliant madcap comedy.

This came after the slightly disappointing The Lonely Guy and was a
critical and commercial success. The on-screen chemistry between Steve
Martin and Lily Tomlin (playing a sour and spoiled heiress called
Edwina Cutwater) is superb and the zany plot, featuring soul
transference and an Indian mystic, sparkles with wit. Martin, who
plays an attorney named Roger Cobb, said: "All of Me was like
going to school. I learned a lot about structure and character."
It was another collaboration with director Carl Reiner.

Best line: "You're like an energy vampire. You suck
the life out of people."

6. ¡Three Amigos!, 1986

The Three Amigos: Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin ShortCredit:
Rex Features

Steve Martin joined up with singer and songwriter Randy Newman (and
Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels) to write this spoof western,
directed by John Landis. Newman also contributed some songs. Martin
(Lucky Day), Chevy Chase (Dusty Bottoms) and Martin Short (Ned
Nederlander) star as the Hollywood silent film actors who portray the
Amigos on screen and get dragged into a real-life battle with Mexican bandits.

Best line: "Oh great. REAL bullets!"

7. Roxanne, 1987

Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah in the 1987 comedy RoxanneCredit:
Rex Features

Steve Martin reinvents Edmond Rostand's 1897 Cyrano de Bergerac for
a modern Colorado setting. The film was directed by Fred Schepisi and
Martin plays Charlie 'CD' Bales, a small-town fire chief with a large
hooter who is desperately in love with astronomer Roxanne Kowalski
(Daryl Hannah). The film is charming and earned Martin a string of
awards, including the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best
Actor and Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Steve Martin teamed up with John Candy for a comedy that
was written, produced and directed by John Hughes (National Lampoon's
Vacation, The Breakfast Club, Home Alone). Martin played Neal Page, a
highly-strung businessman who has to rely on the help of Candy's
character Del Griffith, a bumbling and garrulous shower-curtain-ring
salesman, to get home from New York to Chicago in in time
for Thanksgiving. Martin has a memorably angry swearing scene in which
he says f------ 18 times within a minute, earning this feelgood comedy
an 'R' rating in America.

Best lines: (when Neal and Del wake up in the same hotel
bed, holding hands)

An affable buddy comedy, directed by Frank Oz, in which Steve Martin
is paired with Michael Caine as two con men on the French Riviera.
Caine described the movie as one of the most enjoyable to make in
his whole career. Martin said: "We had so much fun. We laughed
all day." The film took more than £35 million at the box office.

Best line: "Do you ever have a single thought
that originates from above the waist?"

10. Parenthood, 1989

Steve Martin in ParenthoodCredit:
Rex Features

Steve Martin was nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe for his
portrayal of Gil Buckman in director Ron Howard's sentimental
comedy. The film was a box-office smash hit, grossing more than £120
million worldwide. Keanu Reeves also starred in the film. In real
life, Martin is a talented banjo player.

Best lines:

Frank: "Gil, you have a good memory. Uh, was it yours or
Helen's or Susan's wedding I got drunk at?"

Gil: "It was all three, Dad. Congratulations."

11. LA Story, 1991

Steve Martin plays Los Angeles TV weatherman Harris K Telemacher in
this engaging romantic comedy, in which a freeway sign flashes up life
advice for Martin's character. The film is less a narrative than
an accumulation of neat jokes about smog, fads, traffic, dress,
earthquakes, romance and trendy restaurants. The name of the
restaurant in the movie is pronounced 'Leedy-O' but spelled L'Idiot.

Best line: "Hello, this is Harris. I'm in right now,
so you can talk to me personally. Please start talking at the sound of the beep."

Father of the Bride and its sequel garnered Steve Martin a host of
film awards and nominations for his role as family man George
Stanley Banks. His wife Nina was played by Diane Keaton.

Best line: "I used to think a wedding was a simple affair."

13. Bowfinger, 1999

Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin in BowfingerCredit:
Film Stills

The chemistry between Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin
works terrifically in this satire on Hollywood film-making. Martin
stars as director Robert K 'Bobby' Bowfinger and Murphy plays actor
Jefferson 'Jiff' Ramsey. The film was directed by Frank Oz. Asked
whether he would like to be a director one day, Martin replied:
"Even after all these years of doing films, the camera, the
lenses... Maybe I'm a little bit lazy, I don't know. I like dealing
with the script, I like dealing with the comedy."

Best line: "This film is only for Madagascar and
Iran. Neither of which follow American copyright law."